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Time, Where Is It Going?

You know in movies when they want to make you feel like time is quickly passing by speeding everything up? Kind of like fast forward on the PVR. That is how life is moving lately.

Nothing makes me feel this way more than watching the boys grow up in every way possible. It’s amazing and sad all at the same time. They will never be the way they were yesterday and that happens every single day.

I really love the ages that we have right now. Harry is almost seven and Charlie is almost four. It seems perfect on so many levels. They are boys. Not toddlers or whatever you want to call a three-year old. They are full on boys that have many moments of love, hate and everything in between.

It’s all going too fast. Summer was a blur. Back to school came out of nowhere it seemed.

For our kids, we are going through yet another change. A new school. You see, we moved to a new house and neighbourhood in the winter, so that means we change schools.

For Harry this is a big deal. All he knows is Howard where he went for two years. That’s where his friends are. That’s where his comfort is. That’s where his heart is. He loved that place.

But, change can be good and he has handled it like a trooper. In the past Harry has taken weeks to transition (house, school, daycare, cereal etc.) but in a matter of hours, he picked himself up off the sad floor and has embraced Parkdale as his own.

It’s pretty amazing to see. This is part of his personal growth over the last month or so. Trying new food, shedding his usual skepticism and being more of a young man than a boy. Don’t get me wrong, the boy is still there. But the change is there more and more every day.

I think because he is kid one, it’s not as drastic because we have enjoyed this phase for a few years.

But then, there is kid two.

Jesus, he is growing like Mad Max Fury Road. Size, personality, you name it. This kid is the one that has the time-lapse thing going before our eyes. Seems like yesterday he was the baby with the chubby cheeks and infectious laugh.

That laugh is still there in spades but now there are the other 45 personality traits to go with it. Charlie is a go big or go home kind of kind. Happy – BIG. MAD – Really BIG. Sad – BIG. Shit disturber – BIG. Amazing brother and friend – BIG.

You get my point. He puts everything he has into it.

People who have not seen Charlie for a bit will go, wow, he has changed. He is a boy. He looks older than he is and that will be a curse and an advantage for him going forward.

Like I said, time is going way too fast for us to enjoy these two at this point in time.

Before long they will not even want to hang out with mom and dad.

Back to Charlie. This kid has little fear or at least he doesn’t show it. Maybe he hides behind his natural ham-like ability to just make people smile. But his first few days of BIG school has not fazed him a bit. He has transitioned to a new school, new teacher and new everything so well.

I pick him up and sure enough he is doing something to make the other kids laugh. Maybe he is that “ice breaker” kid that the other kids lean on to calm their own nerves. Who knows. But Charlie, he fits in fast.

They love going to the same school. They tell stories of when they see each other in the gym or outside. They don’t get to do what they want, but you can tell they have each other’s back.

Simple glances at each other tells a story and they just get how the other is feeling like only brothers can.

All the worry that we as parents had for the new school, has been much less a big deal than we were expecting. I think we are having a harder adjustment than they are.

At their new school they get to eat in a cafeteria, have weekly swimming sessions for gym and interact with so many backgrounds and cultures. It’s truly what we like to see in a Toronto school.

I could go on all day about these two kids but I need to get back to life. I need to go and figure out a way to slow it all down. Before I know it, the boys will be at University, sharing an apartment and begging us to bring boxes of groceries on our next visit.